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posted by martyb on Tuesday March 21 2017, @04:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the ham-and-mayo-on-wry? dept.

Mayo Clinic, one of the country's top hospitals, is in the midst of controversy after its CEO said that the elite medical facility would prioritize the care of patients with private health insurance over those with Medicare and Medicaid.

The prioritization by the Rochester, MN-headquartered medical practice was recently revealed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. And it has quickly drawn out some sharp critics—as well as sympathizers.

In a statement to the Minnesota Post Bulletin, Dr. Gerard Anderson, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management, compared the prioritization to policies seen in developing countries. "This is what happens in many low-income countries. The health system is organized to give the most affluent preference in receiving health care," he wrote.

Likewise, Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper, expressed surprise and concern by the statements of Mayo's CEO, Dr. John Noseworthy. "Fundamentally, it's our expectation at DHS that Mayo Clinic will serve our enrollees in public programs on an equal standing with any other Minnesotan that walks in their door," she said. "We have a lot of questions for Mayo Clinic about how and if and through what process this directive from Dr. Noseworthy is being implemented across their health system."

Specifically, Noseworthy said in a video to Mayo employees late last year:

We're asking... if the patient has commercial insurance, or they're Medicaid or Medicare patients and they're equal, that we prioritize the commercial insured patients enough so... we can be financially strong at the end of the year.

In statements, Mayo has confirmed Noseworthy's prioritization and added that about 50 percent of its patients are beneficiaries of government programs. "Balancing payer mix is complex and isn't unique to Mayo Clinic. It affects much of the industry, but it's often not talked about. That's why we feel it is important to talk transparently about these complex issues with our staff."

Source: Ars Technica


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  • (Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Tuesday March 21 2017, @07:54PM (1 child)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 21 2017, @07:54PM (#482351)

    Personally I like Ferrari as a metaphor because the US govt will, can, and has bailed out the domestics. So if I made an example like "Imagine GM having to give away a truck to everyone for free, they'd go out of business" and the rebuttal is of course not, the .gov would bail them out (again). If Ferrari were forced to give a nice expensive car to everyone they would in fact go out of business.

    The fundamental problem that can't be hand waved away is a nice death in America costs about as much in medical costs as a nice Ferrari. Not a cheap Ford or my new Yaris or whatever. So... you can hand wave all you want about morals and ethics but if the cost of death is getting vaguely close to lifetime income, there's going to be problems paying for that very expensive death.

    You can imagine the Eqyptians pouting that everyone who dies should get to be buried in a great pyramid. Sure, our culture can't afford it but who cares they're entitled because, um... because its a human right to take someone elses money to have a really fantastic death ritual. And a bunch of us vs them class stuff about how everyone is entitled to burial in their own great pyramid regardless of social strata especially every poor person should have tax money build him a great pyramid of a death. Yeah there's some scaling issues.

    You have some peculiar beliefs about what I believe in. People of a national SOCIALIST tendency tend to have a rather right wing view of how to serve the american workers, often confused by those used to "worker=left wing" commie stuff. As you'll recall a rather famous quote by the God Emperor himself on the topic of the R party now being "the party of the American worker". Personally I don't like the NatSoc moniker as that was a last century German thing and this isn't Germany in the 30s. But I like "American Nationalist" label. Some folks say 12 of one, a dozen of another, I don't think the label is as important as the belief.

    A lot of american nationalists or alt right or pre-neo-con republicans or whatever you want to call them were formerly very cringe level libertarian so its sure not your fault for confusing them. Times change, and with them, beliefs.

    blame the poor for their lack of character and poor decision making processes

    Well, we agree on the latter two observations at least that's a start.

    OUR MEDICAL IS TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE

    we seem to be arguing quite a lot over something we agree on.

    the White Nationalist bullshit

    You seem very confused about neocons vs alt right / american nationalist / american workers party type stuff, shouting at alt right people for having neocon beliefs and such. The neocons are the epitome of the ever so Christian values of "F you die in a ditch" wrt to poor people, sick people, pretty much everyone not living in Israel, and I more or less agree with your assessment of the neocons needing to go in an oven. Everyone to their left AND right wants them in the (metaphorical of course) oven. I don't think anyone likes the neocons very much other than the Israelis who really enjoyed their foreign policy... mistakes.

    You know, when you read in a history book about the Holocaust and how could the Germans have permitted it, but then back to the 2010s, when you look at the literal millions of 3rd world deaths, and tens of thousands of american deaths, and literally trillions of dollars wasted, and what we could have done with trillions of dollars (hmmm health care maybe?) and ask yourself if the neocons were being tossed into ovens today would I risk my life or my families life to save a neocon life? Hell no, I'd probably fund raise money for the gas bill.... I remember when the neocons kicked all the normies out of the R party, and I was blue pilled normie back then not happy about it at all.

    Give the God Emperor some time. Its one eternal godlike sandworm and 100 days against the entire cathedral for decades. Rome wasn't burned in a day, right?

    You might find you agree with some of the folks on the far right. Your rant can also get a simple cut -n- paste job for higher education and real estate too, for a good time.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 22 2017, @12:12AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 22 2017, @12:12AM (#482470)

    How do you have the time to write all these tediously long self-justifying posts?
    Anyone with so much free time to waste on validating their own inhumanity can't possibly be a productive member of society.
    You've painted a picture of yourself as self-loathing NEET.